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Pirates

A pirate is a robber who attack ships. Although piracy has occurred since ancient times, the golden era of piracy was the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries on the Mediterranean and Caribbean seas. When the early American colonists established successful trade routes to Europe, many pirates turned their attention to the Atlantic. Pirates have been the subject of much literature, and thousands of Web sites are devoted to their study. Welcome aboard swabbie!

Discover with Discovery Online why "some of the most feared pirates of all time are coming back to life. Blackbeard is back, and Black Sam Bellamy, who raided ships throughout the Caribbean, is probably more famous now than he was in his heyday. Both have been revived through sunken ships." Two real pirate ships have been found along the eastern shoreline. Bellamy’s ship, the Whydah, was discovered off Cape Cod in 1984 and Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge was found in 1997 in just twenty feet of water off the coast of North Carolina. Now that’s a buried treasure!

"Ahoy! Have ye heard the secret of this ramshackle inn where ye’r lodgin’? They say it’s full of booty but nobody’s been able to find it." Join this interactive adventure, and while looking for the loot, you’ll unearth tales of real pirates woven into the story line. When your adventure is finished, click on Books for Buccaneers (from the main menu) for elementary and young adult reading lists.

This pirate potpourri, from the second and fifth grade students of Rochedale State School in Queensland Australia, includes reports on famous pirates such as Bartholomew Roberts and Anne Bonny, pirate limericks, pirate stories, pirate book reports, and pirate treasure maps. Do not miss the fun Pirate Treasure Hunt, complete with a certificate to print when you find the booty.

Although the word "pirate" is the one most commonly used today, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, many additional and more specific terms were used. For example, a privateer also plundered ships, but carried with him a letter of marque signed by a king or other head of state, granting him the right to attack enemy ships. And a buccaneer was a non-Spanish European sailor who settled in the West Indies and raided Spanish ships. For an interesting view into the pirate’s life, read the Pirate Rules of Conduct — which include formalized workers’ compensation (see rule VIII.)

This student-created site is cleverly divided into Fact (where you’ll find history, a time line, vocabulary and even a section on modern software piracy) and Legend (with lists of books, movies and pirate poetry.) Layout and navigation are awkward at times — with a generic welcome message repeated at the top of every page. If you find yourself staring at a page without content, be sure to check the green sidebar menu — you probably need to dig further down the menu tree to find what you’re looking for. For fun, visit Test Your Knowledge for word searches and pirate quizzes.